PreSonus Blog

Monthly Archives: June 2013

[We decided it best to give some recognition to our more vocal advocates—and what better way than via a blog series?]

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

I’m Brian Busch—Owner and Lead Engineer for Diamond Entertainment.

How were you introduced to PreSonus?

I started reading reviews and keeping an eye on PreSonus after the release of the StudioLive 16.4.2. It was pointed out to me by Roger Blevins, the lead singer for Mingo Fishtrap. He has long been a fan of PreSonus preamps, which he uses in his studio. With his recommendation and after some research of my own, once the StudioLive 24.4.2 was released I snapped one up and have been using it ever since.

What PreSonus software/hardware do you use and for what purpose?

I own a StudioLive 24.4.2 mixing console attached to a Mac Mini that has Capture and Studio One. We record our shows. Mingo Fishtrap is about to go on tour, and we will be using Capture to record the tour for a live album later to be produced later in the year. I also use an iPad to remotely mix most of my shows with StudioLive Remote. Even when I am not mixing with the iPad, it is an awesome tool for EQing monitors. The Smaart Measurement Technology is great for finding crazy frequencies that show up in the middle of a show.

What’s so great about PreSonus, anyhow?

In a word – flexibility. In my business, being able to adapt to whatever situation is thrown at you is paramount. I constantly have to set my mixer up on the stage, or side stage, for instance, because the show we are playing is for a wedding, I can remotely mix without ruining any the pictures of the bride’s special day.

When on tour, we will mix the show through the StudioLive 24.4.2 and just send a left/right to the front of house. This helps us out because we never know what situation we are showing up to. It could be a club with an old 16-channel board (we need 22, minimum) or a festival with some unfamiliar digital console. However, using this board and my iPad, I can stand right out in the sweet spot of the audience and mix the show from there. Festival stages love this because we only tie up two channels on their snake.

I also like the solid punchy sound of the preamps. No other mixer I use delivers more. This is true especially for drums. I can make just about any drum kit sound like a million bucks with those preamps.

[We decided it best to give some recognition to our more vocal advocates—and what better way than via a blog series.]

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

Steve Savanyu. Hudson Ohio, I am the educational services director at Audio-Technica and teach at Kent State University. I teach microphone and wireless workshops at universities around the country and have taught at all of the PreSounSphere events… In my spare time I operate Buford T. Hedgehog Productions, a local production company that does live sound, studio recording , live remote recording, video production and lights just for giggles. I also participate in really big events such as Presidential Debates, Papal visits, and Inaugurations….

How were you introduced to PreSonus?

Through a friendship with Rick Naqvi, at a church sound seminar where I was teaching a microphone class. I assisted with a live recording at the event where we used 3 FirePods aggregated together on my Mac laptop. It was a fun experience and we learned a lot. Ask Rick about hot patching into a non-transformer isolated 48-channel stage snake splitter. It made a big noise on a really expensive NEXO line array…. Oops.

What PreSonus software/hardware do you use and for what purpose?

Where shall I begin? I currently own 5 StudioLive 16.4.2’s, one StudioLive 24.4.2, and 1 StudioLive 16.0.2 which I use primarily for live gigs. I also have been known to carry the 16.0.2 out as the front end for remote tracking sessions using Capture. (I have recorded the orchestral score for two Kent State Student films this way). My original location rig is a FireStudio with 2 Digimax Pres to give me 24 inputs. (I multitracked a basketball game with it for an Audio Technica project. We were showing how different mics and positions affected game sound for broadcast.) In the studio I have a Central Station with remote for speaker management, and a FaderPort which I use as a controller for the audio part of my video edit rig. I picked up an AudioBox 44VSL for location video work (tied into a MacBook Pro laptop). I run a legacy Pro Tools rig in the studio with a DIGI-003 interface (back when ProTools required Digi hardware) with DigiMax D8 mic pre. The band I work with uses two of the 16.4.2s and performs about four nights a week on average (in different locations). The ease of operation on the StudioLive console and the ability to save scenes makes it a snap for the band to use.

On the software side, I use Capture to record almost every live event we do. The low overhead of capture allows me to use some pretty basic computers to record up to 32 tracks via two linked StudioLive 16.4.2s. In the studio, I have been using Studio One Professional 2.5 as my main edit software. I like it, as it’s intuitive and has low computer processing overhead so it runs great on a laptop. As an experiment, I mixed a seven-song EP of a band I work with on a flight from LA to New York! I was burning out the CD as the flight attendant was saying power down your electronic devices for landing. Of course my Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones made accurate monitoring possible in the plane’s less-than-fancy mixdown environment.

I have dabbled with iPad control on my larger rig, but not implemented it completely due to the expense of buying seven iPads, computers and routers. I am looking forward to the StudioLive 32.4.2AI with its built-in networking. I can beta test… 🙂

What’s so great about PreSonus, anyhow?

First and foremost is the people! I have called Justin and Rick on weekends and evenings with questions and they always get back to me promptly. I have participated in both PreSonuSphere events and like the camaraderie of the entire PreSonus Family.

Second, is the products just work and sound good. They are intuitive to learn making it easy for me to train a band’s engineer on using a digital board. We like the fact the processing is built-in to the StudioLive consoles. The presets sound great, and make it easy to get a mix up even if you have never done sound for the band before. True story: Early on we did a gig for a band who was unfamiliar with the power of a digital console. It was an outdoor event so I had the 16.4.2 out front with the snake and a power cable for FOH stuff. Their diva lead singer, who knew everything about sound and told me so, was being a pain in the butt. He walked out to FOH, looked at the “smallish” console and said “dude where is your effects/EQ rack?” I hesitated for a moment and looked him in the eye and said: “Dang, I knew we forgot something…” The look on his face was priceless…

And third of course, is the jambalaya…

Where can our readers learn more about you online?

First and foremost, check out the Audio-Technica.com website. A-T makes great studio and live mics that pair up well with PreSonus hardware. Our new AT5040 with its revolutionary capsule design and “pure, simple signal path” would pair up well with the ADL 700 Channel Strip (hint hint, I have the mic…) Our Artist Series and Artist Elite live sound mics are second to none.

As for me, check out my website www.bufordthedgehog.com and visit me on Facebook. I try to post a FOH picture of every gig I do either on my page or the PreSonus user group page. I am on LinkedIn but don’t do the Twitter thing.

You can see some of my video work on the A-T YouTube channel as well as other audio companies’ YouTube channels. I have several published articles about doing audio for video and I am the audio expert on the FilmSkills online training series produced by Jason Tomuric.

I attend all of the major trade shows: NAMM, INFOCOMM, NAB, etc. and do microphone and sound workshops at universities, church conferences (with my good friend Doug Gould) and trade shows. You can’t miss my distinctive look…. just ask for the blonde guy!

[This just in from Edgar at Hermes Music, our distributor in Mexico. Their crew just went through a product training session with Mark Williams, and it was a smashing success! Thanks to everyone at Hermes who took part in this session—support for customers in Mexico is getting better by the day!]

Hello PreSonus team! We recently had a visit from Mark Williams, (PreSonus Director of International Sales and
Business Development) who gave us a product overview and discussed PreSonus products and their functions. Hermes Digital planned two different training sessions; one with the stores sales personnel and the other with the Hermes Music Pro Audio team, service department, sales department and digital audio personnel. People were excited about the products and had many questions about software and hardware.

Mark showed and explained every single PreSonus product in detail, showcasing the features and qualities that make PreSonus products unique in their class. Hermes Digital are constantly working for PreSonus, spreading information about the products and working on clinics and training in order to get PreSonus products into the users’ hands—with all important information in Spanish! Clinics and special events like these are critical to our market.

At the end of the training, the Hermes Digital team took some time to tour Mark around our stores. Some of our strongest points of sales are through the main musical stores located in the capital of Mexico. The historic center of Mexico City, AKA the “Centro” or “Centro Histórico,” expands in all directions for a number of blocks. The Zocalo is the largest plaza in Latin America and the second largest in the world! It can hold up to nearly 100,000 people. Bolivar street, placed in the historic center of Mexico City, is the most important location for selling instruments and audio equipment in Mexico City.

Mark was amazed by the branding, marketing and business strategies Hermes Digital has put into action in such a short time. He also saw lots of people in the streets and inside stores buying and constantly asking for digital audio products. It’s been an honor to have Mark visit us in Mexico!

[This just in from Steve Freeman, National Director of Camp Jam, far and away the rockinest summer camp that kids have ever known. A great guy, and a great organization that we are proud to have a hand in.]

These kids are growing up right, using Studio One and the StudioLive mixers to learn recording and mixing. The StudioLive 16.4.2 is being used to mix and record performances from both the campers and visiting artists! Studio One Artist continues to be the DAW format for our recording/songwriting class.

The features and simplicity of StudioLive and Studio One have our camps running smoothly, and make a real difference in the sound of the recordings and performances. Campers are all being given a PreSonus code to download Studio One Artist. We could not be happier with PreSonus and their efforts to support Camp Jam and music education!

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU. YOU ARE INCREDIBLE! These are pictures from Atlanta—we will send from other cities as we move through the summer. If you’re interested in Camp Jam, please contact us, summer classes are filling up fast!

Audio production doesn’t have to be complicated. That’s the notion behind both the AudioBox Studio package and this forthcoming webcast. Spend some quality one-on-one time with Justin Spence as he takes the mystery and frustration out of getting your first song recorded and mixed!

[This just in from Ariella at Berklee Online! Berklee has a ton of great stuff going on just now, including-but-certainly-not-limited to some great online courses and a new downloadable freebie: the Music Business Handbook! ]

Learn the most up-to-date marketing techniques and discover how to build a successful music business career with Berklee Online, the award-winning online extension school of Berklee College of Music.

Berklee offers over a dozen instructor-led online music business courses covering entrepreneurship, marketing, publishing, licensing and beyond—all written and taught by Berklee’s faculty, or industry professionals.

For tips and best practices for success in the music industry, click here to download Berklee’s free Music Business Handbook.

Brad Zell scored a killer interview with none other than Khaliq Glover, Grammy Award-winning engineer for Michael Jackson, Prince, Herbie Hancock, and many more. Brad and Khaliq will be talking about tips and tricks for Studio One. This is a great opportunity to learn from one of the greats, LIVE!

Gene Baker over at Music Insider Magazine recently published this great two-part blog series on using the StudioLive mixers for silent rehearsals. The benefits of this are twofold: first is the critical importance of hearing protection; he looks at the steps you and your StudioLive can take to preserve what’s left of your precious hearing. Second benefit of silent rehearsals: no angry neighbors!

A highlight:

“PreSonus have basically blown everyone right out of the park. Their mixer has all your in-ear mixing problems already handled, not to mention, it works seamlessly with multitrack recording and live performances. You really should check into one, plus all the software and apps are free.”

MacProVideo recently created a great free tutorial on using Melodyne as integrated into Studio One Professional 2, including free sample videos from their full Studio One course. If you’re interested in using the most powerful pitch correction software available—and what recordist isn’t—this is definitely worth a read. Experienced users of Melodyne may find some of this material to be a valuable refresher, as well.

Also, Studio One users of all levels will find value in the Studio One Producers and Engineers Toolbox from AskVideo. This 22-chapter series focuses on 102-level audio engineering topics like freezing tracks via Track Transform, submixing and busses, and more.